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general laws of our organization, until his data are complete;— 

 tliat, if the function is not solely the result of organization, it 

 must be ailmitted there is an intimate connexion between the 

 actions of the different organs and their structure ; and hence, 

 tliat every modification of texture is necessarily accompanied by 

 corresponding modifications of function; — that a knowledge of 

 every variety in organization is indispensible to the Physiologist 

 and Pathologist, and consequently to the Physician and Surgeon, 

 whose arts are founded on Physiology and Pathology ; and that 

 it affords to the naturalist the only rational basis, on which he 

 can attempt to reason respecting the unity of the human spe- 

 cies and its varieties ;* — I say, when all this is considered, one 

 is astonished to find, that, from the moment, when a tolerable 

 knowledge of the anatomy of the adult was obtained. Human 

 Comparative Anatomy did not become a grand object of inves- 

 tigation. Now, as it may be presumed, that every enquiry, in 

 any way tending to promote the interests, and advance the 

 knowledge, of a subject so interesting and useful, would be 

 acceptable to the Academy, the author is induced to commu- 

 nicate to them the results of a great number of dissections, 

 undertaken with the view of ascertaining the changes, wliich the 

 human skeleton undergoes at different periods of life ;f and, if 

 they should be considered as calculated to assist in the ad- 



* " L'etude de rAnatomie, dans les divers ages de la vie, offre un nouveau champ de de- 

 " couvertes ; et il n'est pas douteux, qu' en la cultiv.int, on ne parvlenne a concilier les 

 *' opinions des divers anatomistes, parce qu'ils ont regardes comme constaut, ce qu'ils n'ont vu 

 " que dans un seul age de la Tie." — Portal, Memoires de V Academie des Sciences, arm. 1771. 



f It is not intended to investigate, at present, the changes which the structure oi the bones 

 undergoes at different periods of life. This will form the subject of a future enquiry : the 

 present being limited to the consideration of the changes in the form, and relative proportion, 

 of the whole skeleton and its different parts. 



